This week’s hottest eSports news and highlights for League of Legends, CS:GO, and Dota 2. Expect spoilers!
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Immortals
Weekend games at Las Vegas started on Saturday with the 3rd Place Match between Immortals and Team Liquid. Despite their narrow loss last week, Team Liquid looked strong and poised to overcome the fourth place curse and beat Immortals. Immortals, on the other hand, looked weaker then ever last week after being swept 3-0 by the 6th place TSM. When the third place match went down, the Immortals demonstrated that last week was a wake up call for them as Huni played an impactful top lane Gragus to help sweep Team Liquid 3-0.
Counter Logic Gaming
On Sunday, the finals between TSM and CLG finally took place. The rematch of the 2015 Summer Split Finals delivered on all fronts with an epic five game series. Every single game was a thrill to watch as the energetic crowd at Mandalay Bay cheered and gasped at the back and forth teamfights that went on in every game. TSM demonstrated their impressive talent in all of their lanes while CLG had fantastic teamwork and synergy. Ultimately, it was this teamwork and synergy that lead CLG to win the championship. With this win, CLG gets a ticket to MSI in Shanghai where they will play the best teams in every league. Furthermore, CLG won 90 Championship Points which almost assures them a Worlds spot in the fall.
Fnatic
The third place match between H2k and Fnatic started with Fnatic swinging right out of the gates. With some decisive teamfights, Fnatic took the first two games to make them look poised to sweep H2k. However, H2k fought back winning games 3 and 4 to reach a decisive game 5. In this final game, Fnatic won a 5v5 teamfight acing H2k and pushing to a win.
G2 Esports
In the Grand Finals between G2 Esports and Origen, G2 Esports won the first game through methodical play. However, Origen was able to take game 2 by capitalizing on the mistakes of Trick and Perkz. G2 Esports then was able ot take the third game by focusing on Origen's primary damage dealers: PowerOfEvil and Zven. In the fourth game, xPeke subbed in for PowerOfEvil and took a large, early lead. Nevertheless, Trick was able to do a fantastic baron steal and help G2 win the game and the series 3-1. With this win, G2 Esports are not only the Spring Split 2016 Champions but get a ticket to MSI and 90 Championship Points.
This week all of the playoff matches took place.
Results
The first series was a best of 3 between Afreeca Freecs and Jin Air Green Wings. Despite the giant momentum Afreeca had prior to this series, they looked dismantled as Jin Air took both games to advance to play SKT. Only dropping one game, SKT was able to beat Jin Air to meet KT Rolster to play in a classic rivalry match. Some were anticipating this match to be close as KT Rolster was able to recently win a series over SKT in the regular season. However, SKT was able sweep KT 3-0 through some outstanding performances from Blank and Faker to letti them advanced to the finals against the dominant ROX Tigers. This next match is a rematch of the Worlds finals and features the two best teams in the world. You will not want to miss this.
Results
The playoffs for the LPL started with Vici Gaming beating LGD 3-1. On the other side of the bracket, Snake Esports swept Invictus Gaming 3-0 to advance to the Quarterfinals. In the Quarterfinals, Team World Elite beat Vici Gaming 3-1 and EDG swept Snake Esports 3-0 to advance to the Semifinals. With one last match to go, Royal Never Give Up narrowly beat Team World Elite 3-2 while QG Reapers forfeited against Edward Gaming due to their inability to field a midlaner. The Grand Finals between Royal Never Give Up and Edward Gaming is set to take place this coming Saturday and showcases the best China has to offer. EDG will be fighting for the opportunity to defend their MSI title by winning the series this weekend.
The second biggest event in League of Legends eSports is coming up. Here are the details:
The DreamHack Masters Malmö took place between April 12-17 and featured 16 different teams from around the world with a prize pool of $250,000 on the line.
Both Natus Vincere and Ninjas in Pyjamas had dominating runs where they met in the Grand Finals. The finals were close with Ninjas in Pyjamas winning both the first map, Dust II, 14-16 and the second map, Cobblestone, 14-16. Threat has been given much credit for coaching NiP to achieve their intense win.
The StarLadder i-League Dota Inviational is organized by StarLadder and ImbaTV with a $100,000 prize pool. The tournament started on April 14th and ended on April 17th.
With eight different teams participating, Vici Gaming Reborn was knocked out in the semifinals by Natus Vincere. However, Vici Gaming Reborn were able to play through the loser's bracket until meeting Natus Vincere once again in the Grand Finals. In the first game, Na'Vi was able to get a snowball and win. However, VG.R was able to fight back and take the next three games until they won 3-1 to win the first StarLadder i-League Invitational.
Here is how the tournament played out:
Sources:
The Score Esports:
GosuGamers
My first MMOs included Ragnarok Online, Gunbound, Diablo II, and World of Warcraft. Nowadays, my wife (also a writer on MMOs) and I play League of Legends and any other MMOs we can get our hands on. I also love following eSports and attending eSports events.
